Counterfeiting and errors threaten patient safety. There are 1.25 million adverse reactions and 7,000 patient deaths annually in the United States as a result of drug errors. Existing verification relies largely on tagging and checking drug packaging. Of course, in a hospital setting, packaging and product are often separate.
Formulated medications created in the pharmacy, including but not limited to intravenous medication delivered in IV bags, pose a special challenge. Once the medicine or bag is made up, how do you tell whether it contains the proper medication, at the right concentration, and that the drug is both current and genuine? Opening the drug to sample it risks contaminating it.
For operating rooms, the identity of leftover waste drug is of concern. A hospital employee may try to steal leftover drugs and sell them, and substitute a substance such as saline or dextrose in the original container.
Immune globulin is often counterfeited.
Chemotherapy is expensive, as are antibiotics. Mistakes are even more expensive: an average lawsuit may cost nearly half a million dollars.
Patients may receive the wrong drug or the wrong dose, or an infused drug may spill or not be delivered correctly because of a blockage.
There is thus a great need for approaches to verify products in a hospital or long-term care environment. Such approaches need to be reliable, simple to use, and accurate. None of the prior-art approaches known to the applicants are completely satisfactory.